THIS WEEK: After playing 10 of its first 12 games at home, Washington State (10-2) travels to the Midwest for six games in six days...Cougars will play a single game at both Kansas State (Tuesday, March 11 at 4:30 p.m. PDT) and Wichita State (Wednesday, March 12 at 5 p.m. PDT)...WSU caps the trip with a four-game set at Oklahoma (Friday, March 14-Sunday, March 16)...game times in Norman, Okla,. are 4:35 p.m. PDT, Friday, a noon PDT doubleheader, Saturday and 11 a.m. PDT, Sunday...live stats will be available at www.k-statesports.com (Kansas State), www.goshockers.com (Wichita State) and www.wsucougars.com and www.soonersports.com (Oklahoma).

SERIES AGAINST THE WILDCATS: Washington State and Kansas State have split two previous meetings...Cougars won 5-3, March 13, 1989 in Fresno, Calif at the Pepsi/Me-N-Ed's Classic...Wildcats were victorious 9-7, Feb. 5, 2000 in Albuquerque, N.M., at the Spalding Baseball Fiesta.
ABOUT KANSAS STATE: The Wildcats are 6-6, including a 3-1 mark in Manhattan, Kan...opened their home slate taking three out of four games last weekend against Le Moyne...Kansas State is batting .233 and has a 4.20 earned run average.

SERIES AGAINST THE SHOCKERS: Wichita State leads 3-0...Shockers won 5-3, March 23, 1991 and 9-2, March 25, 1995 at the Hawaii Rainbow Easter Tournament as well at 9-6, March 6, 1999 at the Hormel Classic in Minneapolis.

ABOUT WICHITA STATE: The Shockers are 7-3, including a perfect 7-0 at Wichita...Shockers are ranked 15th by the NCBWA, 21st by USA Today/ESPN, 24th by Baseball America and 27th by Collegiate Baseball...swept Harvard in a three-game series at home last weekend...Wichita State is batting .320 as a team and has a 4.14 ERA.

SERIES AGAINST THE SOONERS: Washington State has won three of the four previous meetings between the schools...Cougars won 6-1, June 12, 1976 at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., in the series debut...Oklahoma won 5-4, March 26, 1977 in Las Vegas...WSU swept a two-game series in Norman, Okla., March 20-21, 1987 by scores of 16-14 and 5-4.

ABOUT OKLAHOMA: The Sooners are 12-2, including 9-0 at home...play Dallas Baptist, Tuesday, March 11 and Northern Illinois, Wednesday March 12 in Frisco, Texas...Oklahoma is ranked 25th by Collegiate Baseball and is receiving votes in the NCBWA poll...swept Western Illinois in a four-game series last weekend in Norman, Okla...Oklahoma is batting .306 and has a 3.06 ERA.

WSU AGAINST THE BIG 12: The Cougars are 18-27 all-time against current members of the Big 12 Conference...record includes games vs. Baylor (0-2), Kansas State (1-1), Missouri (1-1), Nebraska (2-2), Oklahoma (3-1), Oklahoma State (1-4), Texas (5-9), Texas A&M (4-7) and Texas Tech (1-0).

WSU AGAINST THE MISSOURI VALLEY: The Cougars are 3-5 against current members of the Missouri Valley Conference...WSU is 0-1 vs. Bradley, 1-0 vs. Southern Illinois, 0-3 vs. Wichita State and took two of three from Creighton in the 2008 season-opening series.

KENT STATE RECAP: The Cougars took three out of four games from Kent State in Pullman, March 7-9 to capture their 16th-straight nonconference series at home...WSU dropped the fi rst game 9-5 and came back to win 10-2, 21-4 and 5-3.

COUGAR BULLPEN: The Washington State bullpen is 6-0 with three saves and a 2.05 earned run average this season...logged 23-consecutive innings (Feb. 23-March 1) without giving up an earned run...Michael Ratigan is 3-0 and has yielded a lone unearned run in 10 and two-thirds innings in four appearances...Ross Humes has made six appearances and is
1-0 with two saves and a 0.00 ERA...Steve Kost is 1-0 with one save and a 0.00 ERA in six games.

PROTECTING LEADS: In the Donnie Marbut era, a late lead for the Cougars is likely safe...Cougars are 81-8 (.910 winning percentage) when holding an advantage after six innings during Marbut's tenure (2005-present)...Washington State is 84-5 (.943) when leading after seven innings and 89-3 (.967) when holding an advantage after eight innings...
over the last 10 seasons, the Cougars are 201-26 (.885) leading after six innings, 203-20 (.910) leading after seven innings, and 208-10 (.954) taking an advantage into the ninth inning.

COUGARS RECEIVING VOTES: Washington State is among the schools receiving votes in the USA Today/ESPN top 25 poll released March 3...the Pac-10 is well represented with No. 1 Arizona State, No. 2 Arizona, No. 18 UCLA, No. 20 Stanford, and No. 25 California...Oregon State and USC are among the schools joining the Cougars in the receiving votes section.

CONSECUTIVE WINNING SEASONS: In 2008, Washington State seeks its third-straight winning season, something the Cougars have not accomplished since 1994 when a 35-26 record capped a run of 37-consecutive campaigns with a mark above .500.

MARBUT VICTORIES: Entering 2008, Washington State Head Coach Donnie Marbut recorded 85 wins on the Palouse, the most by a Cougar mentor during his fi rst three seasons in Pullman...Aberdeen native currently has 95 victories and needs 12 more in 2008 to surpass Bobo Brayton's school-record total of 106 by a Cougar coach in his fi rst four
seasons at WSU.

COUGAR DRAFT PICKS: The 2008 Washington State team features three student-athletes who have been selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft...senior infielder Paul Gran was taken in the 30th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of Bothell High School in 2004...Gran turned down the Dodgers' offer and attended Edmonds
Community College for one season before transferring to WSU...Southridge High School (Kennewick) product Chad Arnold, a redshirt-freshman right-handed pitcher, was a 36th-round pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2006 and freshman utility player Eric Maupin, the 2007 Nevada State Co-Player of the Year at Reno's Galena High School, was a 48th-round selection by the Seattle Mariners last summer...both Arnold and Maupin chose WSU over
a professional contract.

WSU ON THE INTERNET: For the latest information about Cougar baseball, log onto the official site of Washington State University Athletics, www.wsucougars.com...live stats are provided for all Cougar home games as well as the majority of WSU road games...all Cougar games in Pullman will be available via live video streaming for Cougar
All-Access subscribers.

COUGARS ON THE RADIO: The remaining games of the 2008 Washington State baseball season will be broadcast on KQQQ 1150 AM...longtime broadcaster Steve Grubbs provides the play-by-play for the fourth season.